Woody Allen directs opera

No word on how Dylan and Ronan are taking this

According to AP:

Woody Allen said Tuesday as he prepared for his directing debut at Milan's La Scala opera house that he has "always had a warm and affectionate following in Europe."

Allen was greeted with applause at a news conference ahead of the weekend premiere at La Scala of Puccini's comic one-act opera "Gianni Schicchi" with the prolific filmmaker as director.

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Alongside the La Scala production, a cinema museum in Milan is showing a retrospective of 28 Allen films. After Saturday's "Gianni Schicchi" premiere, Allen said he plans to travel to San Sebastian, Spain to work on his next film. The cast includes Christoph Waltz.

Allen said that his work "resonates with Europeans in a way that they relate to."

"I know when I started making movies 50 years ago or almost 50 years ago, for whatever reason I always had a very warm and affectionate following in Europe," he said. "And even when films of mine were not as well received in the United States, always in Italy, France and Germany, all over Europe, they received my films well."

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Allen said he was persuaded by Placido Domingo to direct opera - but it took him a long time to come around.

"I didn't know if I had any ability to do this sort of thing. I had done cinema and not even that much stage work. I found it to be a very enjoyable experience," Allen said.

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Allen's said he staged "Gianni Schicchi" in the neorealist style of 1950s directors like Vittorio De Sica and Federico Fellini -- after ideas to make Schicchi a rat among mice or a cigarette among organic produce were rejected.

He said he would have preferred a different ending for the opera, based on an incident in Dante's "Divine Comedy," which sees the title character condemned to hell for profiting from a ruse.

"I have a weakness for people who live on the margins of society and slightly outside of the law, so have I have great affection for Gianni Schicchi," Allen said. "I would not put him in hell at the end of the movie. I would retire him with a good pension and let him go off and lead a very happy life in the country. "